This invention relates to new factor VIII polypeptides, that is, proteins, exhibiting coagulant activity. The invention therefore has utility in the therapy for classic hemophilia, and in the further study and characterization of the polypeptide or polypeptide complexes which provide desired clotting behavior to the blood of humans and other mammals.
It has long been known that plasma factor VIII plays a crucial role in blood coagulation, and that thrombin activates the coagulant effect of factor VIII. Recent attempts to characterize factor VIII have postulated that factor VIII is a complex of at least two polypeptides, which are known as VIII:C and VIII:R, and have found coagulant activity to reside in the VIII:C portion. Studies of the effect of thrombin on factor VIII:C have led to the conclusion that thrombin activates this factor by breaking it down into several smaller polypeptides. However, no prior studies have been able to associate thrombin-induced factor VIII activation in humans with any defined polypeptides formed from human factor VIII:C.
For instance, Hoyer and Trabold, in "The effect of thrombin on human factor VIII", J. Lab. Clin. Med. 97:50-64 (1981), sought to purify human factor VIII:C by immunoadsorbent chromatography using a polyclonal antibody to factor VIII:R raised in the rabbit. They then incubated the factor VIII:C with purified human .alpha.-thrombin, and determined that small amounts of the thrombin activated the factor VIII:C whereas larger amounts activated it less or not at all. They also concluded that thrombin activation is accompanied by a decrease in the size of the protein, and they proposed a molecular weight of about 116,000 for the activated factor VIII:C. Most significantly, they could not identify specific polypeptides that retained factor VIII:C activity and VIII:C antigen determinants.
Fulcher, C. A. and Zimmerman, T. S. in "Characterization of the human factor VIII procoagulant protein with a heterologous precipitating antibody", Proc. Natl. Acad. of Sci. USA, 79:1648-1652 (1982) obtained highly purified human factor VIII:C from plasma concentrate by passing the concentrate through a column containing a monoclonal antibody to factor VIII:R, eluting the VIII:C from the adsorbed VIII:C/VIII:R complex, and concentrating the factor VIII:C on a second column. The purified factor VIII:C was then analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (hereafter, "SDS-PAGE"), both before and after addition of thrombin to the purified material. The purified factor VIII:C prior to thrombin addition showed a wide array of bands on SDS-PAGE corresponding to polypeptides of various molecular weights (M.sub.r), including a relatively strong doublet at M.sub.r of 80,000 and 79,000, and at least six additional polypeptides with larger M.sub.r including one at M.sub.r about 92,000. Addition of thrombin to the purified factor VIII:C caused the diminution or disappearance of all of the polypeptides shown prior to thrombin addition.
The coagulant activity of the plasma concentrate rose following thrombin addition to a maximum of three times that of the material prior to thrombin addition, and then diminished. The coagulant activity of the purified factor VIII:C also rose to a maximum of three times that of the pre-activated material. That is, the thrombin had essentially the same activating effect on the factor VIII:C in each case. Thus, whereas the purified factor VIII:C possessed a reported specific activity some 3280 times that of the starting material, one skilled in this art would conclude that the increase in specific activity was due to the high degree of purification achieved. There is no basis in this article for ascribing activated coagulant activity to any specific one or more of the large number of polypeptides associated with the bands observed in the purified factor VIII:C prior to activation with thrombin.